Katy's Garden

"White Wave" is a relatively dainty H. macrophylla with crisp, clean lacecaps in dazzling pure white. It´s a very old variety, a french hybrid from V. Lemoine, 1904. The original name was "Mariesii Grandiflora", and like its sister breed "Blue Wave" (formerly "Lilacina"), was born from an open pollinated seed. The ray florets are beautifully designed, flat and simple, not overlapping, like a heraldic flower, and their pure white takes a sort of mother of pearl shade in combination with the pik/mauve/lilac/blue of the fertile florets in the middle. It is listed as a 1,5-2 m plants in some books, but mine does not seem to make any headway in size, despite being very healthy and blooming generously. It is considered a reliable plant, cold and disease resistant.

"Mme Emile Mouillière" a direct descendant of "White Wave", shares the same attibutes of antiquity and well proved resistance. The other parent was H. serrata "Rosea", one of the very first varieties imported to Europe (in 1880), and one of the oldest known mopheads. "Mme Emile Mouillière" was presented in 1909 by E. Mouillière and is generally considered the best (white) mophead hydrangeas for the garden. It is very hardy. It has the realtively rare ability (for macrophillas) to bloom on new wood, so that even after the worst spring it is seldom without flowers, and it does just as well in shade or half shade, with vigourous growth and very dark healthy leaves. The flowers are pure white, initially, then assume a pinkish shade, the central eye of each floret pink or blue. The flowers last very well into autumn assuming green and crimson shades as they age. If it has a defect, this is, in my opinion, in the somewhat irregular and lumpy shape of some of the largest flower heads, I guess there is nothing perfect in this world. It is still a very good plant.